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China isn’t taking the U.S.’s accusations of unfair trade practices quietly.
The country’s Ministry of Commerce released a statement Thursday responding to President Donald Trump‘s most recent trade war escalation — a list of an additional $200 billion in Chinese goods that will be subject to a 10 percent tariff hike — and put the blame for the trade imbalance squarely on the States. It called Trump’s claims that China has taken advantage of the American economy “slander” and “a distortion of facts.”
The statement addresses the “massive trade deficit” the President has repeatedly cited in justifying the tariffs, a figure that reached $375.2 billion last year. The Chinese ministry argued that the discrepancy has more to do with differences “in industrial competitiveness and international division of labor” than any unfair practices. While rising wages have encouraged many firms to move production to cheaper shores like Vietnam in recent years, China has been the world’s manufacturing hub for several decades, thanks in part to government policies encouraging domestic production and a surplus of human capital.
Still, the American government sees some leverage: exports to the U.S. totaled approximately $505 billion last year (including shoes, clothing, and electronics), accounting for 19 percent of China’s